Description: Media U presents a provocative rethinking of the development of American higher education centered on the insight that universities are media institutions. Mark Garrett Cooper and John Marx argue that the fundamental goal of the American research university has been to cultivate audiences and convince them of its value.
Brief description: John Marx is professor of English at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Geopolitics and the Anglophone Novel, 1890-2011 (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and The Modernist Novel and the Decline of Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2005). I selected him as a reader for his work in contemporary and twentieth-century Anglophone literature and his interest in the political implications of fiction.
Review Quotes: Tackling everything from football to general education to the credit hour, Media U helps us understand our turbulent university landscape. With a deep sense of history and careful marshaling of data, Cooper and Marx show us that higher ed is not just a maker of knowledge but also a platform for information--a medium itself.--Paula M. Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association